Van Pur S.A. has exercised its option to purchase Royal Unibrew's shares of the company at PLN 111 million
Company announcement No 15/2012 — 15 October 2012
The Polish brewery company Van Pur S.A. has today exercised the option to purchase Royal Unibrew's shares of the brewery company granted by Royal Unibrew A/S in connection with the merger of Van Pur with Royal Unibrew's subsidiary Royal Unibrew Polska Sp. Z o.o. and Van Pur S.A. in March 2011, see Company Announcement No 4/2011 of 18 March 2011.
In accordance with the option, Royal Unibrew A/S has sold all of its shares of Van Pur S.A. at PLN 111 million. The selling price of the shares corresponds to the carrying amount at the time of sale; consequently, the sale will not affect Royal Unibrew's consolidated profit for 2012. The sale has reduced interest-bearing debt by DKK 200 million.
The previously announced outlook for 2012 is maintained.
As announced in Company Announcement No 42/2012 of 28 August 2012, the Board of Directors intends — in connection with the stepwise sale of the brewery site in Aarhus and Van Pur's exercise of its purchase option agreement concerning Royal Unibrew's investments in Van Pur — to increase distribution taking into account Royal Unibrew's financial targets and strategic matters in general. The Board of Directors thus expects Royal Unibrew to distribute extraordinarily approx DKK 500 million over the coming years. The above-mentioned Company Announcement also announced that share buy-backs in the period between the Annual General Meetings in 2012 and 2013 will extraordinarily be increased by DKK 50 million, and that an extraordinary increase of dividend by DKK 50 million in 2013 is proposed. Information on any extraordinary distribution for 2013 in addition to that already announced will be provided in connection with the publication of the Annual Report for 2012.
Yours sincerely
Royal Unibrew A/S
Henrik Brandt
CEO
Please direct any questions to me at tel +45 56 77 15 13.